Friday, 27 February 2015

Google
Talk, the 9-year old instant messaging service, has finally been killed
by the internet giant. Popularly known as GTalk, the service will now
be replaced by Google's Hangouts; the two have co-existed since 2013.

The news about the retirement of GTalk had been announced by Google's
product manager for Voice and Hangouts, Mayur Kamat, on February 16 via a
blog post.

Though the service is officially dead, it can still
be accessed via third-party applications like Jitsi, Psi, Instantbird,
Miranda IM, among many others. However, Google in an email sent to users
said, "Please bear in mind that these aren't Google products, so
exercise caution when signing in with your Google account."

Among the key features of Google Talk was invisibility mode, which is
not available in Hangouts. Also, sharing files is much more convenient
on GTalk compared to Hangouts.

However, Hangouts is an
important tool in Google's fight against popular messaging apps like
WhatsApp. With a browser extension, mobile app and Gmail integration,
Hangouts provides a more consistent user experience than GTalk.

Moreover, Hangouts integrates text messages with internet-based instant
messages, along with GTalk features like voice and video calling.

Below is the full text of the email that Google sent to GTalk users:

Hi User,

We
noticed that you recently tried using the Google Talk app for Windows.
We wanted to let you know that this was discontinued on 23 February
2015. We recommend giving Hangouts a try so that you can chat with all
of your Google contacts. Hangouts supports people's favourite features
from Google Talk, including text chat, presence, contact lists and
status messages. In addition, Hangouts lets you have group video chats,
make phone calls, express yourself with emojis and keep your
conversations going across Android, iOS and your computer.

If
messaging right from your desktop is important to you, try the Hangouts
Chrome app or Hangouts in Gmail. If you're not ready to make the switch
to Hangouts quite yet, you can continue using Google Talk on Windows
with a range of compatible third-party chat apps. (Please bear in mind
that these aren't Google products, so exercise caution when signing in
with your Google account.)

As a loyal Google Talk
user, we thank you for your support and we hope that you give us the
opportunity to provide an even better communications experience with
Google Hangouts.

If this sign-in attempt was not made by you, please check details on your Devices and Activity page

If you recently tried using the Google Talk app for
Windows. We wanted to let you know that this was discontinued on 23
February 2015. We recommend giving Hangouts a try so that you can chat
with all of your Google contacts. Hangouts supports people’s favourite
features from Google Talk, including text chat, presence, contact lists
and status messages. In addition, Hangouts lets you have group video
chats, make phone calls, express yourself with emojis and keep your
conversations going across Android, iOS and your computer.

If messaging right from your desktop is important to you, try the Hangouts Chrome app or Hangouts in Gmail. If you’re not ready to make the switch to Hangouts quite yet, you can continue using Google Talk on Windows with a range of compatible third-party chat apps. (Please bear in mind that these aren’t Google products, so exercise caution when signing in with your Google account.)

As a loyal Google Talk user, we thank you for your support and we hope
that you give us the opportunity to provide an even better
communications experience with Google Hangouts.

If this sign-in attempt was not made by you, please check details on your Devices and Activity page

Monday, 30 June 2014

There are many times when being thin is desirable: When you’re trying
on bathing suits, for example, or when you’re trying to squeeze into a
wedding dress.

But when it comes to content, thin is most definitely not in.

Thin content is also known as low-quality content, and it’s the bane
of smart SEOs and marketers. The web remains chock full of examples of
thin content, despite the fact that Google began devaluing it long ago,
after the search site realized people were gaming the system by slapping
together low-quality posts with hot keywords, backlinks and duplicate
content in search of cheap traffic.

In fact, your site may even have some thin content,
whether you meant it to be that way or not. No web site is perfect, and
it’s not uncommon for lower-quality posts or pages to be hiding amongst
your higher-quality stuff. The problem is thin content can hurt you in
search rankings. Google Webmaster Tools sniff it out like a bomb-seeking dog, and your site could be punished for having this undesirable content.

With that in mind, here’s a primer on how to identify thin content and what to do with it once you’ve found it.

So What Is Thin Content?

Thin content is, in the simplest terms, a page with no real value
besides building traffic. It contains no great insights into the
industry, no good information about your product, and nothing that you
couldn’t find on another, similar site.

If you have pages with any of those five qualities, that’s a signal
that you need to take action. But sometimes thin content isn’t as easy
to suss out, depending on how many pages you have on your site.

Google actually suggests that you ask friends or family to look at
your pages, giving them a fresh eye, and report back whether or not they
are helpful. For instance, if you have services in 16 different
counties and you’ve made a special page for each of them but you only
change one word on each page, an outsider might suggest you remedy that
problem.

Google Webmaster Tools will send you notifications if there’s a thin
content problem. However, it’s better to be proactive. You can also
consider using one of these thin content-flagging tools:

Google Analytics:
Use the exit rate to sort on the “Review All Pages” section, and look
at pages with a 75 percent bounce rate or higher. Take a look at the
content on those pages, which clearly aren’t keeping people’s attention.

Screaming Frog:
Use the URL scrape tool and then sort the exported URLs by word count.
If you have a lot of pages with fewer than 250 words, you have a
problem.

Open Site Explorer:
Look at the backlinks on your site and where they’re coming from. Also
note the social media statistics to see if your pages are resonating
with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other users.

You’ve Found the Thin Content. Now What?

Once you have identified the thin content, it’s time to play a little
game called plump up or get out. The objective – to either eliminate
the problematic page or add to it in order to turn it into a
high-quality resource page. No matter what you decide, this process will
take time, but ultimately it will help both your search ranking and
your sales.

Consider yourself an editor in this process. A good editor knows that
sometimes the best solution is to cut something, even if you’ve spent
lots of time on it. If a page has no discernible value, and you don’t
think it could be improved by adding more detail, more words or better
links, then best to let it go.

However, if you see potential in the page, and you’re willing to put
in the time to improve it, then by all means give it a shot.

Here are some ideas on how to plump up your thin content:

1. Send it to Rewrite

Poorly written or thin copy can be improved with a major rewrite. You
may need to call in a freelance copywriter for this task, but it will
be well worth the money. Decide beforehand what keywords you are
targeting, and aim for at least 300 words per page. Keep away from
sales-y talk and instead go into greater detail about your product, your services, or what makes you unique.

2. Merge Your Pages

Do you really need a page for every single city where you provide
plumbing services? Probably not. Consider merging your pages so that you
have one page with decent content, rather than seven with thin content.

3. Consider Interactive Content

Interactive content is not the answer to every thin content problem,
but it can be a great way to engage readers and improve metrics on a
page, which will lead Google to back off. Some examples of interactive
content include:

Surveys

The ability to “favorite” something on the page

Embedded Google Maps

Quizzes

Interactive FAQs

4. Decrease the Internal Links

If you have a page with loads of internal links, but you still think
the content on it is useful and doesn’t require rewriting, try
eliminating some of those links.

5. Beef Up Regionalized Pages

Do something to differentiate your duplicate content pages such as
going into greater detail about the area you are targeting. This will
eliminate the problem of pages being exact copies of one another, and it should also help with SEO.

Avoiding Thin Content in the Future

It’s great to get your site cleaned up and all the thin content taken
care of, but you also should be looking to the future. Once you’ve
taken the above steps, make sure you revisit your site’s content
regularly to ensure you’re not continuing to add thin content to the
site. Remember: Every piece of content on your site should serve a
purpose, otherwise it’s just filler.

Creating content on a consistent basis not only builds links
internally (by linking out from your posts), but also gives you the
ability to naturally attract links to your content. A blog is essential
to many strategies I list below, such as linking out.
To reiterate – a blog is a means to an end from a tactical
perspective. Creating the blog in itself won’t build you any links; it’s
what you do with it that builds links.

Create an RSS feed

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:Design, development

Link Value:High

If your blog is run on any of the popular Content Management
Systems, you'll already have an RSS feed. If you don't, create one. If
you do, burn it at Feedburner.com so you can get statistics on your
subscribers.
For link building, it's simple. There are sites out there that
will scrape your content (stealing it without permission). When they do,
make sure you get a link back by 1) including links to other pages on
your site in your posts and 2) installing the RSS footer plugin for WordPress (adds a link to your blog after every post).

Interlink

Time:4-8 weeks

Dependencies:Development

Link Value:High

You have pages and posts on your website, so make the most of
them. Internal links are HUGE for link building because you can control
everything about them, from the location on the page to the anchor text.
If you’re thinking about using a CMS plugin that automatically
hyperlinks a certain word every time it appears on your website (i.e.
like Wikipedia does), I’d suggest refraining from doing so unless you’re
a relatively big brand or if it makes complete sense from a UX
perspective. Instead, go through all of your content that’s been
previously published, and if you’ve got more detailed content written on
subjects that you briefly go over in your posts, then link in that
context where it makes sense. But make sure you consistently mix it up
from an anchor perspective.
For future/new content, as you’re writing it, try and steer
your way into certain topics that you’ve already written on so you can
link to it & so it makes sense from a user’s perspective.

Resources/Links pages

Time:2-4 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Design, Dvelopment

Link Value:Modera...

Other webmasters have created links or resource pages, and these are legitimate opportunities to get links.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just asking for a link. I'll
go into specific strategies below that help you get webmasters liking
you before you ask, because doing that greatly increases your chances of
getting a link.
In general, though, focus on relevance above all else. It’s
tempting to just shoot for the big, authoritative opportunities, but by
doing so you run into a few issues. The first is that you limit yourself
to a smaller pool of prospects, so you generally end up with less links
(in some low quality niches, this can leave you with next to none).
Second, relevance is having a much bigger impact in the algorithm moving
forward. And third, by targeting more relevant opportunities, you’ve
got a bigger chance of having the webmasters say Yes.

Profile links

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you sign up to become a member for a site, you'll get a link
in your profile. Well, not every site. Some sites will allow quality
links in your profile, while others won't. Some are in the middle, such
as Twitter, which gives nofollow links (links that don't pass link
juice).
You should also be looking for niche relevant profile
opportunities. Is there a prominent industry community that you can get a
link from via a profile? If so, these usually go further than general
opportunities that would make sense for really any website.Example: CrunchBase. Sign up here.

Ask people you know for a link

Time:1-2 weeks, on...

Dependencies:None

Link Value:High

Whether it's your friends, relatives, employees, colleagues,
business partners, clients, or anyone else, ask them for a link. Someone
you know has a website or blog, so take advantage.
I suggest putting pen to paper on this one. As the digital age
continues to trend upwards, more & more people are creating their
own sites & blogs, and chances are more than a few are people you
know. I’d even suggest posting on Facebook or Twitter seeing who’s got
their own site.
In general though you really only want to be getting links from
relevant websites from these people. If it’s not relevant, it’s not
going to have much of an impact, and these people will most likely be a
little hesitant to link if it’s i.e. a jewelry store & they run a
sports blog.

Make it easy to link to you

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:None

Link Value:High

If you want people to link to you, make it easy for them.
Create HTML ready snippets that people can plug right into their content
to link to you, because some linkers in your community might not be too
web savvy. I suggest either creating a "Link to Us" page or by using a
little JavaScript to generate the HTML at the end of each article or
post.
Note: this might not be the best option based on the community you're
located in. Are you in the cement niche? Then this is perfect. Are you
talking about Internet related business? Then this might not be your
best bet, because the majority of your audience probably already knows
how to link.

Research competitors

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:High

A large chunk of my time finding links is by looking through my
competitor's link profiles. Essentially, you're piggy backing off of
their success. While some links are unobtainable (i.e. a random mention
in a news post), others can be diamonds in the rough (a high quality
niche directory).
I suggest using Ahrefs
for this. Plugin your competitors and export their backlinks to a CSV.
Do this for all of your competitors so you can get all of their links in
one place (Excel). Then you can sort them by various link metrics to
find the best opportunities.
But you don’t have to stop at just direct competitors. You
can also look at how indirect competitors in your vertical (i.e. if you
sell flashlights, a site that sells flashlight batteries) or really any
other niche-relevant sites are getting links. If you’re local, look at
other sites in your geographical area. If you’re ecommerce, look at how
other ecommerce sites are getting links to the same types of pages
you’re having trouble with.

Link out

Time:4-8 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Linking out is huge. Don't be a link hoard; you're going to
create content, so use it to gain favor with other people. I'll go more
into depth below with specific strategies on linking out, but in
general, you only have something to gain when you’re linking out.
The only time when I wouldn’t suggest linking out is if you’re
in a hyper-competitive industry (i.e. gambling) where no matter what you
do, linking to someone isn’t going to catch their eye and possibly
return the favor sometime in the future. But I’d say less than 10% of
industries are competitive enough to justify this.

Get people to see & read your content

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Social

Link Value:High

People won't link to your content unless they see it. At the
same time, you need the right people in front of your content; not
everyone is a potential linker.
This is where social media, content marketing, and brand
awareness comes into the link building realm. Getting people to see and
know your content & brand is a massively important strategy to build
links.
Because a lot of the tactical ways to get eyeballs on your
content aren’t direct ways to get links, I decided to delete that
section in this guide, and instead list all of them here. So here they
are.
Segment your content - If you catch yourself
writing a few monster paragraphs, cut them up into smaller, bight sized
pieces. Make sure you use headers, lists, and bullets when ever
possible. Don't forget to add appropriate spacing. This strategy
directly correlates with increased readability, and thus, linkability.Minimal grammar & spelling mistakes
- It just looks bad when you link to content that's full of spelling
& grammar errors. Do your potential linkers a favor and make sure
your content is free of them.Evergreen content - Timeless
content can not only be used for manual outreach, but it can also give
your content the ability to be rediscovered, and thus, a second chance
to be linked to.Offering your content in multiple languages
- Your potential linkers might not all speak English, so get your
content translated as soon as possible. When you do this, remember to
submit to non-English directories as mentioned above! High Flesch-Kincaid readability score (readability)
- If your content needs a Literature major to be deciphered, then
you're probably not going to get a lot of links. Why? Because if they
don't understand it, they have no reason to link to it.Social platform optimization
- Your linkeraiti and my linkeraiti are two entirely separate groups
that find content on two entirely different platforms. Whether it's
Twitter, LinkedIn, or a niche news site (ex. Inbound.org), you need to
find the right place that gets your content in front of the right
people.
I also want to point out that you don’t have
to limit yourself to just sites in your close knitted niche. You might
find that your space is full of stuck-up webmasters & bloggers that
wouldn’t even smile at their own wedding, so move past it and find other
semi-relevant spaces full of webmasters that you can catch the eye of.

Build relationships

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Social, Customer Ser...

Link Value:High

Remember how people say, "it's not about what you know, it's
about who you know"? The same goes for the Web. Those relationships will
turn into links, both in the short-term & the long-term.
Just like with getting people to see you
content, I realized a lot of the tactical ways to build relationships
aren’t direct ways to get links, I decided to delete that section in
this guide, and list all of them here instead. So here they are.Random acts of kindness - Whenever you can, be nice to people. It might just payoff.
Always be on the lookout for helping those in need. I know this isn't
exactly an actionable strategy, but I'm telling you, you'd be surprised.
These random acts can turn into lasting relationships.Give a crap - Actually care
about people. Show them you're not just a bot with a picture, but that
you're somewhat human. If they share on Twitter that their daughter just
graduated, congratulate them. Something as simple as that can open up
your chances to build a relationship in the future.Participate - If someone is conducting a survey or testing something, get involved and participate. Those are great chances to start conversations with new people.Local meetups - Whether you
find one or start one, meetups are a fantastic way to get to know people
close by. For example, if you live in a big city (Seattle, NYC, Philly)
then meetups are absolutely perfect. Here's the best site to find or start one.User group meetings - A
great way to get to know people who think like you is by finding those
who use the same products or services like you. A great example is the Hubspot User Group Summit I attended last year (one of my clients used HubSpot and I got a chance to tag along).Conferences - Seriously, go
to them. At the time I'm writing this, I've only gone to one, but it was
awesome and I highly recommend it. Here's a fantastic testimonial to why conference events are such great investments.Call them - Yep, I said it.
Get them on the phone. Make them hear your voice and know that you're a
real person. Ben Wills was the first to do this with me. I now know a
lot more about him & Ontolo, something I'm extremely grateful for.G+ Hangouts/Skype - Be the
first person to use a Google+ hangout! But seriously, that or Skype is a
great way to meet face to face with someone without actually meeting
face to face (if that makes any sense!).Twitter RTs, Responses, & DMs
- If you want to get to know someone on Twitter, first retweet them a
few times. Then respond a couple times to a few of their tweets, then
continue the conversation as direct messages. Finally, ask to email
(because 140 characters is never enough), and now you've got the ball
rolling.Answer questions - Answer questions on Twitter, Quora, and anywhere else people hang out. People ask questions all the time. These external opportunities are a great way to put you on their radar.
Note: don’t think of it as a short-term input
& short-term output, especially if you’re a marketing agency. More
so, realize that these relationships can be tapped into for multiple
links (i.e. for different campaigns, clients, etc.), as well as for
other marketing opportunities (i.e running a joint-contest).

SUBMISSION BASED

There are many places across the web where you can build links through
submissions, whether it’s submitting your site, a piece of content, or
anything else.

Article Directories

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Low

You can submit your articles & blog posts to article
syndication sites, and in return, you’ll get a link or two in the
content or the author bio (varies from site to site). Since late 2011,
early 2012, they really haven’t been worth much, but if you’re not
afraid to dabble in some automation based techniques, this is one that’s
still somewhat being used.
Example: Ezinearticles.com. Sign up here.

Web 2.0 Submission

Time:2-4 weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Low-Mo...

Web 2.0 sites are similar to article directories, but instead,
you can add images, video, and other interactive features to your
content. These usually pass more value than article directories, but it
depends on the authority of the site.
If your content is original, then it’ll pass a
lot more value, and even has the possibility of being picked up for
some long-tail queries in the SERPs (meaning their may be a traffic
component to the links depending on the quality of content).
Example: Squidoo.com. Sign up here.

Press Release Submission

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content, PR

Link Value:Low-Mo...

By submitting a press release to distribution sites or specific
syndication sites, you can build links if you add one or two into the
body of the release. Some options are paid, while others are free.
To get the most impact from this historically
overused, spam-driven tactic, I highly suggest only going with one
link, and making sure the anchor text of that link is the URL or the
domain. It’s also suggested to push big content pieces through press
releases, just because with the right syndication services, you’ll get
your content in front of a handful of journalists that could pick it up
& write about it.
Example:PRNewsWire.com. Sign up here. Packages start at $129.

Infographic Submission

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Design

Link Value:Modera...

If you've created an infographic, you can easily submit them to infographic directories or blogs. Paddy Moogan put together this awesome list of 27 of them.
A fair amount of these sites you’ll come
across will ask for some level of payment. It’s up to you if you think
the link is worth the price point. Keep in mind though that these
pay-to-play sites lack the editorial selection that non paid sites have,
and with that characteristic usually comes with an audience that lacks
engagement.
Example: CoolInfographics.com. Suggest one here.

Company Directory Submissions

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing

Link Value:Modera...

Just like general web directories, you can submit your site to
general company directories. You really don't even need an actual
company; you only need a website.
Just like with most submission-based tactics,
try to zero in on relevance at every possible opportunity. For example,
are you a business in the San Francisco area? Then this business directory would be a solid link, more so than a general business directory with a similar level of authority.Examples: HotFrog, Manta.

Video Submission

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Marketing, Video Pro...

Link Value:Modera...

If you have video content, make sure you're getting links from all that hard work. The best list I’ve found is here. Just as a heads up, some sites only provide nofollow links, and they're usually in the description.
If you're looking to submit videos on a large scale, consider checking out OneLoad. It's a paid service, but it can save you some serious time. Example: Vimeo. Sign up here.

Niche Specific Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:High

As opposed to general web directories, niche specific
directories only accept sites that meet a certain topic criteria. For
example, one directory might only accept sites about arts & crafts.
Some of these directories are free, while others are paid.
Example: Calif.com, a directory for California based websites.

User Rating Reviews

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low

Submit user ratings and build links at the same time. Once again, Peter Attia created an awesome list of submission sites for this topic.
Example: Epinions. Sign up here.

Web cam directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low

If you set up a Webcam, you can get a few high quality links,
such as the PR6 directory listed below. If you're wondering where to set
it up, don't worry; it doesn't have to be Times Square. I've seen a few
of highway roads set up right outside of their offices (pretty lame,
right?). You can do something similar. If you want, set it up some place
awesome, because it could attract links on its own.
Example: Earthcam.com. Submit here.

Logo Design Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low

Most of you have logos for your website or company, so get a few links in return for them.
Example: TheLogoMix.com. Info to submit here.

Free Web Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low

There are hundreds of free web directories to submit your site
to. The only qualification you need is to have an active website.
Because these links are so easy to get, though, they don't pass much
value. Still, there are a few free general directory links that pass
both link juice and trust.Example: Website Launchpad. Submit here.

Non-English directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low

If you've created multiple versions of your site in different languages, you can get links for it.
Example: Hello Dir (Italian). Choose category, then submit.

RSS Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low-Mo...

If you have an RSS feed, you can submit it to RSS directories. There are hundreds. Here's a fantastic list
(scroll down) of RSS directories to start out. Although these links
won't be directly to your content, they'll pass link juice to your RSS
feed which links to any content you linked to in your posts.
Example: www.Feedage.com. Submit here (create an account first).

1-800 Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Low-Mo...

Have a toll free 1-800 number? Get a few links in return. If you don't have one, you can get one for $10/month at Grasshopper.
Example: InternetTollFree.com. Info to submit here.

Blog Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you have a blog, you can submit it to various blog
directories. Like all other directories, some pass value, while others
are crap.Example: AllTop.com. Find a relevant category, then sign up to submit.

Podcast Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you have a podcast, you can snag a few free, easy links by submitting to podcast directories.Example: PodcastDirectory.com. Submit here.

Mobile App Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you have an mobile phone app, you can get a few easy links.
Or, if you want, you can create one to get these links. An easy one to
create is an app that just acts as a mobile RSS reader of your blog (this app from the SPI blog is a great example of this).Example: Appolicious. Sign up to submit here.

eBook Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you've already written a few eBooks, or if you plan to, there are a solid amount of eBook directories you can get links from.
You can also reformat your blog content into
an eBook for this very purpose, so don’t worry about trying to get one
written just for this.Example: E-BooksDirectory.com. Submit here.

Web App Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you have an online tool or application, you can get links
for it. If you're thinking about creating one, know that it can also be
used to attract links (link bait). We'll go more into that below.Example: Go 2 Web 20. Hit "Suggest an App" to submit.

Widget Directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Although the majority of widget directories you come across
don't outright give you a link, you can still do some serious link
building with them. If you make sure there's a link somewhere in your
widget, you can get it in front of large audiences with these
directories, and in doing so, some will embed them (thus, you earn a few
links).Example: GadgetsDirectory.Blogspot.com. Submit here.

Paid directories

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Some directories cost money in order to be accepted into their
listings. Once again, while some of these can pass legitimate value,
others pass little and aren't worth your time or money.
Example: The Yahoo Directory. Submit here.
The only other general paid directories I’d recommend are the BBB,
Business.com, BOTW and JoeAnt (although BBB & Business.com are just
for businesses, but seeing that this is most of you, I’d consider them
general).

Multimedia/Document Submissions

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

If you have any PDFs, PowerPoint Presentations, word documents,
or any other documents, you can submit them to these sites and get a
link in return. You have to put the links in your documents, such as in
the first slide of a PowerPoint or in the text of a PDF.Examples: SlideShare, Scribd, and Issuu.
Note: Although you can get a profile link from each, I'm
still not 100% positive Google counts these links. I'm 99% sure
Scribd's links are, but I know these are nofollow. Also, Slideshare's
& Scribd's profile links are nofollow.

CSS/HTML5 Directories

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

There are loads of CSS galleries you can submit to if you did a
great job designing your website or blog. There are also a few HTML5
showcases that you can get links from too.
I suggest forking out $20 to have your site submitted to 100 of them. Don't worry; it's quality manual submissions, not software.

Theme/Template Directories

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Designing WordPress themes or website templates can be a great
way to net a few fantastic links from directories. Also, you can host
the download page on your site, and if it's decent, you'll get a few
links from design blogs.
If it's a WordPress theme, you can submit to the WordPress.org theme directory, which will get you a couple of high quality nofollow links (not to mention a ton of free exposure).
Example: free-css.com (website templates). Here's the submission information.
Note: Remember to include credit links in the
templates or themes, because sometimes that's the only way you'll get a
link back (they'll link to a demo page, not the creator's site).
Popular page locations of links include the footer & the sidebar.

CONTENT BASED

You can use your content to get links. Most of these strategies don’t
necessarily attract links (which we go into below), but they can if the
content is good enough.

Guest Blogging

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Bloggers, just like me, sometimes have trouble cranking out
content on a regular basis. That's where you can help. Pitch bloggers to
ask if you could guest blog, because if they say yes, you can get a few
links from the post, and if the blog is popular, you can drive traffic
too.
Here's a fantastic guide on the entire guest blogging process.
If you want, use sites like Blogger Link Up and My Blog Guest
to connect with bloggers who need content. It's scalable, but the
bloggers you get in touch with aren't usually very authoritative
(they're mostly mid-level bloggers).
Keep in mind that guest blogging has been a
tactic that’s recently been beaten into the ground. This has a few
different major implications:
• Bloggers are generally sick of guest blogging pitches at this point
• As of the time of this writing, Google hasn’t taken any action on them, but it’s only a matter of time
Starting with the first, you need to
understand that your pitch will be mixed in with a lot of other similar
pitches, so if you think you can send off a batch of generic requests in
hopes of getting some quality placements, you’re going to be
disappointed. In general, you can test the effectiveness of your pitches
by looking at the kinds of blogs that are accepting your requests,
rather than the raw acceptance rate, just because some blogs accept
guest posts from anyone (and they’re easy to point out by their low
quality blogs).
In general, the kinds of sites I just
mentioned that accept guest posts from practically anyone are usually
not the kinds of sites you want placements from. Therefore, do your
research to 1) weed out sites that publish an excessive amount of guest
posts (use your own judgment for how you define excessive), and 2) those
who haven’t published any guest posts (meaning you most likely have no
chance no matter how good your pitch is).
In regards to the second implication
mentioned above, Google hasn’t taken action on what they define as
‘large scale guest blogging’, but it’s going to happen soon. To combat
this, first understand that because Google solely looks for patterns
(Google is math), you don’t necessarily have to do what they publicly
approve of, you just have to not fit the mold.
So to do this, do things like:
• Invest time in your content (i.e. only 800+ word posts)
• Have multiple outbound links in the article, not just to your target site
• Have an internal link or two, as very few large scale guest bloggers do this
• Include an image and/or a video, where & if it makes sense
• Don’t get your link in the author bio, but in
the middle of the content (unless the site has a quality level that
makes it worth getting anyways)
So with that said, if you really want to do
some guest blogging at scale, make your pitches stick out like a sore
thumb, don’t create predictable patterns, and do your homework by
reading one of the gazillion guest blogging guides on the Web if you
need more information on the process.

Get your own column

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Instead of looking for one-off guest blogging opportunities the
entire time, look for opportunities that could win you regular
contributions to a single blog or your own column. These links look very
natural, you can get multiple high quality links a month, and if the
blog has a decent audience, you’ll send a bit of traffic through those
links too.Example: Squidoo.com. Sign up here.

Trade Articles

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Just like guest blogging, you can get links in return for your
content, but why not just trade? You both get content on each other's
site, links, and visitors from an entirely different community.
If you or the other has a significantly more
popular blog, see if the less significant one can do something extra in
return. A good example is buying the other $10-15 worth of StumbleUpon
paid traffic. It doesn’t have to be huge, but it levels the playing
field, as you’ll find very few blogs with exactly the same audience
size.

Blog Carnivals

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

If you’re a relatively new blog & would be willing to write
a blog post for the sake of getting one solid, contextual link, then
blog carnivals are a no brainer. Basically, blog carnivals are a blog
community that writes about certain topics as a group. These posts then
get linked to from an issue, kind of like a magazine.
So for example, this issue is on homeschooling.
Each carnival has an organizer (who starts
& runs it), a host (who volunteers to host that month’s issue), and
bloggers (the part we’re concerned about). Each carnival allows
submissions from bloggers who are generally experts in their given
fields.
To get all the details, check out this FAQ page.

Educational Content

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

If you're trying to get links from colleges, create content
targeted at them that you can use during outreach. Trust me, there's
usually something you know that you could write an entire tutorial on
that would interest college webmasters.
Instead of tackling the content creation
process from a top-down approach (creating content, then finding link
opportunities), go at it from a bottom-up approach so you end up
creating content on topics that you know for a fact that you can get
links to.

Green Content

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Just like educational content, create something that targets a
specific community. In this case, it would be the environmental
community. They've got hoards of link juice just waiting to be tapped
into.
Simply outreaching to green bloggers and
letting them know about your content usually does the trick. If the
content is good enough, and if it's a complete conversation (i.e. a huge
infographic on the environmental impact of drift nets), they'll usually
dedicate an entire post to it.Pro tip: As stated above, an
infographic or something similar would work great, because all they have
to do is embed it. If there's any community willing to embed an
infographic that's relevant & worth sharing, it's the green
community.

Images & Cinemagraphs

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Design

Link Value:Modera...

Something so frequently overlooked is the use of images for
links. Bloggers just like me struggle to find relevant images to our
content, so why not take advantage?
When people use your images you'll get an
attribution link in return (that's if they're honest). A great idea is
to always have a camera with you whenever you're at an industry event.
Imagine if you took 100 pictures at SXSW of all the different speakers
and published them on a certain portion of your site.
You can also use the tactic of creating quote graphics, which are basically just pretty pictures of (you guessed it) quotes (i.e.).
If you do go this route and generate a lot of
images, consider setting up a section of your site as a media gallery.
From there, do some image SEO to get them ranking for some different
image search queries, then bank on people stealing them & placing
them on their own sites (which, at this point, is when you reach out to
them & ask them to include an attribution link if they already
haven’t).Pro tip:hotlink your images.
Make it easy for publishers to copy & paste HTML code right into
their posts. This not only makes it easier to use your images, but it
also makes it much more likely you'll get a link from each.
As for cinemagraphs, the process is the same;
build up a library of them, and try and get other bloggers &
webmasters to use & embed them. When they do, make sure you get the
attribution link.

Writing Testimonials

Time:3-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Customer ...

Link Value:Modera...

This one is HUGE. Right now, list any services or
products you've bought recently. As long as it's not a product or
service from a massive company (i.e. Walmart), there's a good chance you
can get a link in exchange for a testimonial.
For example, this testimonial page has a PR of 5. The best part is that it only costs the customers a few sentences about that specific service.

Entering Contests & Giveaways

Time:3-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Legal, PR...

Link Value:Low

I love online contests, and so should you. They're not only
your chance to win some cash or prizes, but they're also a chance to net
a few high quality links. The most popular contests & giveaways
you'll see are guest blogging contests.
For instance, I not only got a link from this post I entered, but I also won the $1000 grand prize. Not bad, eh?
Here's a great example of where your great content pays off. I entered an infographic created by Kapil Kale, a friend of mine, into a contest on StumbleUpon, and it got a link from their blog! Talk about high quality links!

Get Interviewed

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Just like you should interview others, seize opportunities to
be interviewed, no matter how small the audience is. The 5-600 words
that take you 15-20 minutes can turn into a few highly authoritative
contextual links.
There’s usually nothing you can do to open up opportunities like
this, unless you’re actively pursuing them. For example, see if there
are any industry interview series of other people/companies that are on
the same level of caliber as you. Reach out to whoever is running them,
introduce yourself, and say that you think you or your company might
have a story that’s worth telling. It can’t hurt to ask, as long as your
polite about it if they say no.

Contribute to Crowdsourced Posts

Time:2-6 Weeks

Dependencies:None

Link Value:Modera...

Just like with interviews, if someone reaches out to you to
participate in a crowdsourced post, make sure you contribute. The
questions usually don't take more than 5-10 minutes of your time, and
you'll get a decent link or two from it.
The only way you could actively pursue these opportunities is if you
can identify people in your industry that do a lot of these types of
posts, and try and build up some favor with them.

LINK ATTRACTION

Outreach & submissions only go so far. Sometimes you have to let
your content attract links naturally to get the results you want.
If you create content that naturally attracts links, it not only
saves you time getting them manually, but it also increases engagement
on your blog (if it’s worth linking to, it’s usually worth reading).
This is where your content & link building strategy become one.
One tip to keep in mind: always aim for longer form content. The
reason is rooted in psychology (people like to look smart, so they like
to share longer, more detailed content), and it usually works like a
charm, so if you invest in a piece of content, the rule of thumb is the
longer, the better.

Egobait

Time:1-2 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

It's a fact of life: people like to look good. If you're
featured as one of the top bloggers in your niche, you're probably going
to spread the word.
By appealing to the egos of people, companies, and communities, they'll help spread the word about your content. For example, this post I wrote appealed to some of the authorities in the SEO industry who all helped me spread the word.
If you’re thinking this might be something worth pursuing, read this guide, and check out this crowdsourced post on the topic.
Note: you can also do what’s known as ‘communitybait’, which is basically just Egobait for communities.

Contrary Hook

Time:1-2 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Modera...

If there's controversy in your industry, or if most in your
niche have one particular view on a topic, don't be afraid to write up a
post on the opposing view. If you do it quick enough, and if you do a
good enough job of laying it all out, you could get a lot of exposure
out of it.
A great example is what Rand Fishkin said in response to this post, which attracted over 800 links from 140+ root domains.

How-to’s and Tutorials

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Whether it's a tool, DIY project, or anything else, showing people exactly how to do something is extremely helpful.This RSS tutorial attracted 8,000+ links from over 600 root domains.

Glossary of Industry Terms

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Newbies in your industry probably don't know all the jargon
you and other bloggers are using. Do them a favor and create a glossary
of industry terms and acronyms.
Here's a fantastic glossary of internet terms that landed 2,600+ links from over 1,200 root domains (imagine if you made an updated version!).

White Papers

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Modera...

You might be thinking research & white papers are the
same, but they're not. Someone writing a research paper doesn't know
what the outcome will be; someone writing a white paper has a clear
understanding of the objectives and intended results from the beginning.
For example, you could outline an entire sector of an industry from top to bottom.This one
outlined the company and its services and got over 300 links from 100+
root domains. No, you’re not Bitcoin, but there’s probably some related
topic you know of that you can go into some detail of.

Quizzes/Tests

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Modera...

Testing your reader's knowledge and letting them share their results with their friends is always a great idea.
OKCupid does a fantastic job with this. Their 2008 politics test attracted 1,600+ links from over 500 root domains.

Research Papers

Time:4-8 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Modera...

Going all out and diving deep into a subject is a great way to
establish yourself as an industry leader. It's also a great way to
attract a few links. If you make any major discoveries, you'll get at
least a few citations from scholarly and news websites.This one, which attracted 7,600+ links from 1,500+ root domains, might look a little familiar.

Timely/Seasonal Content

Time:8-12 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Creating the right content at the right time can get you a ton of attention. For example, publishing a fun visualization of the Kentucky Derby following up to the event could score you a lot of links.
The same goes for seasonal content. Whether it's Valentine's Day,
Christmas, or Halloween, you can create holiday themed content that can
get a ton of attention over a short period of time (and every year
after). This is a great example.

Case Studies

Time:8-12 Weeks

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:Modera...

Everyone loves a good case study. Real results with real
numbers can instantly catch people's attention. If you offer a product
or service, this is a no-brainer. If you give out advice, find someone
who's used it successfully.
Although this particular case study didn't attract more than 200 links, it's still a great example of what one should look like.

Humor

Time:1-2 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Design, Dev...

Link Value:Modera...

Creating a parody, spoof, or industry jokes list is a great
way to loosen up your readers. People love sharing things they can laugh
at.
The Onion, a fake news network, is built on humor. This story
in particular attracted 4,400+ links from 1,200 root domains. No,
you're not a major site like The Onion, but making a similarly funny
industry news story is something worth thinking about.
I try to use as few examples as possible from the SEO industry, but if you need a laugh, watch this.

Printable Resources

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Design, Dev...

Link Value:Modera...

People like hard copies of useful guides. By creating a
printable resource with an awesome design, you can almost guarantee a
few links will come your way.
Check out this case study
(see what I did there?) about how Brian Flores created a printable
HTML5 cheat sheet that got shared by the Google Developers G+ page.

Creating Contests

Time:2-4 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Legal

Link Value:Modera...

Entering contests is great, but creating them is even better.
By requiring your participants to write about & link to the contest
from their blog, you'll not only get links from them, but their posts
will increase the exposure of your contest, thus growing your number of
contestants at an exponential rate (and thus, the amount of links you
get).
If you're looking for a much more detailed look at running contests, checkout that guide.Pro tip: when thinking about what to make your contest about,
use Twitter search to see what people are saying about your products. So
for example, if you sell AC units, you might find a lot of people on
Twitter are talking about how their AC broke, so you could have a
contest about your worst broken AC experience. (Where I got this idea.)

Complete Guides/Resources

Time:8-12 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Legal

Link Value:High

Creating evergreen resources that are complete guides on a
subject are fantastic. This complete list of link building strategies is
my attempt at one.
Why? Because when people need to explain an entire topic, they'd love
it if they could refer to just one resource, and not a group of them.
For example, Kristi Hines created one on the Google +1 button.Pro tip: If it's not timeless, curate it and keep it up to
date. It might be an awesome resource, but it could become stale in a
couple of years (i.e. a guide to Pinterest if you created one 6 months
after it launched).

Stories

Time:1-2 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Marketing

Link Value:High

People love a good personal story. Whether it's crazy, funny,
or embarrassing, this is yet another way to strike at your reader's
emotion.
James Chartrand managed to attract over 1,000 links from nearly 300 root domains with this interesting one.

Covering News First

Time:1-2 Weeks

Dependencies:Content, Marketing

Link Value:High

This one's tough, but remember to always keep it in mind. If
you see someone talking about a new developing story, and no one has
covered it yet, start mashing on your keyboard at lightning speed.
A good way to do this is by making sure all of the news sources are
in your RSS feed reader. For example, if I wanted to cover the latest
development of search engines, the Google, Yahoo, and Bing blogs would
all be in my reader.

Newsjacking

Time:12+ weeks, on...

Dependencies:Content

Link Value:High

Instead of trying to cover news first, see if you can take
advantage of currently hot topics through newsjacking. This is the
practice of looking for new & upcoming stories then capitalizing on
them by writing up a blog post on the topic. There’s a few different
ways you can go about it:

Just the story itself – if it’s early on in the story’s
life, you can basically fake covering it first by just writing all the
known facts about the story & keeping it updated.

With some analysis – if you’re not one of the first ones there, then
try & give a new spin on the topic that adds new perspective.

Delayed recap – once it looks like all the details are out, try and write a full recap of it & capitalize on freshness.

Detailed analysis – once the dust has settled, do a deep dive into
everything that’s come out, and analyze each point. Do your research to
uncover new, interesting facts that are out there on the Web, but not
tied in with the story yet.

There are a few other post strategies for this, but these are by far
the most popular. For a more detailed review of newsjacking, see this.

Infographics

Time:4-8 weeks, on...

Dependencies:Design

Link Value:High

People love data, but sometimes it's hard to digest. Creating
an infographic on it is a popular way to change that. Not only will it
naturally attract links, but you'll also get other bloggers embedding
it, which means even more links! Not to mention you have control over
the anchor text of the embed code.
To make things natural, try to use a dynamic embed code that randomizes your attribution & anchor text. Here’s how to create one. You should also put an embed within an embed to maximize its impact.
Here's a fantastic case study on an infographic that not only netted a ton of links, but also some serious traffic and social traction.

Web Tools

Time:8-12 weeks

Dependencies:Design, Development

Link Value:High

Creating free online tools, like calculators, is a fantastic
way to attract links. They don't even have to be complex. If it could
save me five minutes, then I'll probably use & share it.
A fantastic example of a simple, yet effective free online tool is this one by Solo SEO.
I can't count how many times I've seen SEO bloggers such as myself link
to it. It's netted almost 500 links from almost 200 root domains.

Interactive

Time:8-12 weeks

Dependencies:Development

Link Value:Modera...

The next big thing in linkbait is interactive content. The reason: because it's flat out cool and few people are doing it.
A great example is what Thomson.co.uk did with this.
Your first thought might be that because there are few, if any, tools
out there to help you create interactive content (without needing a
developer), but realize that because the barrier is high for this
content, it has a better shot at success. To illustrate this, notice how
infographics went downhill after a lot of DIY infographic tools came
out.

Infoanimations

Time:8-12 weeks

Dependencies:Development

Link Value:Modera...

Instead of creating an infographic, why not create a video
that displays the same information? It's a lot different than what most
are doing, and trust me, that's a good thing. The best part is that it
works the same way as infographics; the video can be embedded and can
act as a post by itself.
Here's a great example, and here's where I got the idea.

Review Something New

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing

Link Value:Modera...

Just like with news, if you're the first to review something, and if it's awesome, your review will get tons of attention.
You can also use this to gain favor with the creators of the product or service you're reviewing. For example, I reviewed
Domain Hunter Plus, a new link checker, and not only did I get a few
links to the review, but the creator of the tool worked out a deal with
me by linking to me from the tool's home page, which (before the page moved) had a PageRank of 5.

Drawings

Time:2-4 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Design, D...

Link Value:High

Using drawings to appeal to emotion can work great if it strikes the right tone with your audience. Here's a good example that attracted 15,000+ links from over 350 root domains.
I have to give credit to Neil Patel for this strategy.

Webinars

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Design, D...

Link Value:High

Spending a couple hours every month by doing a webinar is a
great idea for attracting links over the long term. Set up a page on
your website solely dedicated to webinars, and as you create new ones,
the links will roll in each time.
HubSpot has done a great job with this, having over 1000 links from 100 root domains to their Webinars page.

Games

Time:3-4 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Design, D...

Link Value:Modera...

Creating exciting games to keep visitors content is not only a
strategy to attract links to the game itself, but if you make it
embeddable, other webmasters will put it on their site (if it's good
enough), which means even more links.
A great example of this is what Travelpod did with their Traveler IQ Challenge. Better yet, they made it embeddable!

Surveys

Time:1-2 weeks

Dependencies:Marketing, Design, D...

Link Value:Modera...

There's generally a two-step process to attracting links with surveys.
The first step is asking people to participate. If it's on a
particularly interesting topic, reaching out to bloggers, experts, and
industry news sites to ask to spread the word both on their blog and on
social media sites is a great way to attract your first wave of links.
The second step is releasing the results. Combine the release with
some nice visualization and a bit of controversy, and you've got
yourself a fantastic piece of linkbait.
Although it didn't use the above formula, this survey has attracted 250+ links from 100 root domains in only 4 months (published September 2011, last OSE update Jan. 17).

Creating fun, quirky microsites is a great way to attract
links. While some people might naturally link to your main site to give
credit, they'll most likely link to the microsite, which should have at
least one link back to you on it.
Here are a few highly successful ones. If you're thinking they might be too big of an investment, know that they don't have to be fancy.

Google Maps is a great tool, and you can use it to attract
links if you get it in front of the right audience. A great idea would
be to map out all the industry events taking place this year.
For example, Mashable linked out to 100 helpful mashups in this post.

If you create rankings or scores of people, companies, or
anything else, and if it's decent enough, then trust me, you'll get a
few links. The best part is that they don't even have to be accurate (of
course it would be great if it was).
A few good examples are Klout and this list
of Top blogs on Startups. Again, both aren't exactly accurate (Klout
isn't the best depiction of your influence on Twitter, and the #1 blog
on that list is no longer active), but people care about numbers and
rankings, especially the ones that make them look good.

Getting answers from a group of industry experts is another
fantastic way to attract links. If the piece is good enough, and if you
have the right influencers involved, the amount of links you'll attract
can grow exponentially.
For example, SEOmoz did a study
on ranking factors, getting input from over 130 different experts. You
can probably guess it was a huge success. It's attracted 27,000+ links
from 3,300+ root domains. Why? Because the experts did the promotion for
them.

If you and your community are passionate about a certain
issue, start a petition. If you can gain any traction from an industry
news site, it could catch on like wildfire.This petition received 1,100+ links from over 200 root domains.

1. People.
2. Love.
3. Lists!
Why? Because the content is super easy to digest.
If you don’t believe me, check out this simple list of water conservation tips that received over 1,900 links from 400+ root domains.

If there's a common misconception in your industry, make sure
you let everyone know. If it's big enough, and if your statements are
bold enough, you could get some serious attention.
This debunking of 9/11 myths, with 4,000+ links from over 200 root domains, is a perfect example of it working flawlessly.

By collecting data on just about anything, you can attract
links. Why? Because, like lists, people absolutely love data. One reason
is because they like to make conclusions from it that support their
arguments.
Take it one step further. Release it as straight data, then release
it again that makes it visually appealing with any of the strategies
below, as well as any possible conclusions you could take from it.Pro tip: If your data supports a side of an argument (i.e.
nature vs. nurture debate), reach out to those that it would support.
People love telling the world how right they are.

I love this term. I think Rand Fishkin or Kris Roadruck first
said it. Basically, it's a better way to say "create something
controversial".
Creating controversy can be a great way to attract links. Godaddy's SOPA fiasco
is a fantastic example. They originally supported it (which rose
controversy), and then stated they would now oppose it (which rose even
more controversy).

Interviewing industry experts will always be a fantastic way
to attract links, but getting them to interview is only half the battle.
The other half is asking great questions.
A good way to find out what questions you should ask is by holding a
Q&A with your blog's community, whether it's on Google+, Twitter, or
any other site. Ask what kinds of questions you want your readers to
see answered.

Look for products that people don’t know how to decide
between. Then do an in-depth analysis on comparing the two. It’s up to
you whether or not you want to give a conclusion of which is better;
it’ll help create some controversy, but there are some negative side
effects if you don’t include solely objective information if you want it
to be held in high esteem for both parties.
There’s also usually search volume for these topics, so if you rank
highly and the content is top notch, you could attract links to these
posts steadily over time.
One example that I love is this comparison between Ahrefs & Majestic SEO, despite this being an example from the SEO industry.

They’re basically infographics that teach you how to do
something. So, for example, you might create one on a 10-step process to
create your own jewelry box.
Instructographics work especially well on Pinterest. For all the details of promoting them correctly, see this.
If you want some cool examples of instructographics, see this website.

If you've got a few tidbits of data lying around, make them
into charts and graphs. Google themselves actually do a great job with
this; their databoard allows you to create custom infographics out of the available marketing research data they have available.
Now, I know you’re not Google & can’t create a custom tool like
this, but you can probably whip together a few different charts &
graphs that others might find useful.

HELPING WEBMASTERS

One of my personal favorite link building strategies is helping out,
or adding value to, webmasters. By doing something for them, they’ll be
much, much more likely to give you a link.
Understand that these strategies can be paired with others on this
page. So for example, if I was doing some outreach for a new white paper
I created, I could help webmasters fix broken links on the page I’m
trying to get a link from (more details below on this strategy).

If a site is missing information on a certain topic, whether
it's an article entirely or a portion of one that should be better
elaborated on, reach out to the webmaster and ask if you could fill that
gap. Here's a great post on this strategy.

If information is outdated, do webmasters a favor and help
update it for them. If you're in a rapidly changing industry such as
SEO, look for articles & posts written a few years back that still
get traffic (i.e. rank high for a decent keyword). This is because if
many people no longer see the content, the webmaster probably won't care
enough to have it updated.
Here's a great example.
Danny Sullivan even states in the article that he needs to update it!
If I knew Danny better, I'd outreach to him with newly updated content,
and ask if he could replace it (he'd probably be more than likely to).
Unfortunately he's not exactly easy to get in touch with, but in most
cases for you, this shouldn't be a problem.
Remember, when you do update the content, make sure you add a link to you in it. We are building links, aren't we?Pro tip: to save time, use the outdated content finder to find these opportunities.

Take broken link building one step further by recreating the
content found at those URLs, then outreaching to not only that specific
linking site, but also other sites linking to that broken URL.
For this, use Archive.org to find what content used to be found at that URL.
To find dead content that’s ripe for recreation, start by finding
some highly authoritative, niche relevant, & aged resource/links
pages. If you check these pages for broken links, you’ll usually find
one or two to some kind of highly linked to page of content. To
initially find those resource/links pages, start by grabbing a few of
the most authoritative, niche relevant sites you know of, and throw them
into Ahrefs to find their best links.
If you’re thinking horizontally, you might stop prospecting once
you’ve gone through all of the different links to that old page, but if
you did, you’d be missing out on a ton of others. Look for other content
on the same or similar topics that got links by using the same methods
to find the initial dead content (but instead, keep your eyes open for
live content as well).

A decent website usually has some sort of logo, graphic, and
web design. If you have any experience with any of these, reach out to
webmasters and ask if they'd like any of the above services free at no
cost.
Sometimes it doesn't have to be a major website makeover. Michael Kovis has helped me make a few CSS tweaks in the past, something that I've been very, very thankful of. Casey Kluver helped me with a bit of javascript that went into making this very post!
If you don't know design, you can get someone on Fiverr to create a
logo for 5 bucks. No, it's not going to be amazing, but it'll get the
job done.

Every webmaster has to fork out a few bucks a month (or more)
for hosting. Why not help them out by either providing hosting or paying
for it? For those who have a server, this shouldn't cost you a penny. A
great thing to ask for would be a link in their blogroll.

Out of all the strategies listed, this is my favorite. The
scalability of finding broken links is outright unfair. In a nutshell,
you'll be 1) finding pages that could potentially link to you, 2)
looking for broken links on the page, and 3) if there are any, you'll
let the webmaster know and ask if the broken link could be replaced with
a link to you.You can get really creative with broken links. It's by no means a narrow, straightforward strategy.
Here's a great guide on the entire process.

Chris Dyson pointed this one out. Use ScrapeBox to find sites with malware, then reach out to webmasters, let them know, and ask for a link.
Remember: don't go to their site! You might get a virus. Use a whois lookup to find contact info.

There’s a huge issue on the Internet that I didn’t realize
could be used to build links until recently. Hackers (most notably
trying to get links with anchors like “buy cheap viagra”, “online
gambling”, etc.) are infiltrating blogs, college sites, and regular html
websites in order to get the links they want. A lot of times, the
webmasters of these sites have no idea it’s happening.
Here’s an awesome case study on using that to help you build links. For a complete guide by the same author, see this.
And yes, creative would be an understatement.

Not all websites are always accessible in different languages,
and a lot of web visitors do not use a browser like Chrome that allows
the content on those pages to be translated on the fly. Therefore, you
can help by translating their content for them.
As an example, see this page, and see the bullet point titled ‘Estonian language translation of this page’.

Find bloggers who produce podcasts & videos on their blogs
but don’t transcribe the audio files. Do it for them, then reach out to
them letting them know; you can either post the content on your site
for them to link to, or (more recommended) have them post it on that
blog post, along with a link to you for attribution.
I recommend using SpeechPad if you’re looking for a transcription service.

SOCIAL

By no means are social media and link building two disconnected
parts of your web marketing strategy. Here are a couple of ways to build
links using social media sites.

If you've got a Twitter account, then you've got 15 easy links in the bag.
Outside of those, there are numerous ways to build links with Twitter. Instead of listing them all here, just watch this video.

Sites like Delicious, Digg, and Pinterest offer a bit of link
equity through social bookmarks. Keep in mind though that because
they're so easy to abuse, they usually don’t have much value.
The only ones you should really be pursuing are these 10, Pinterest, and niche specific ones (i.e. Inbound.org for inbound marketing).

Sometimes email isn’t always the best way to get in touch with a person.
With the growth of Twitter, it’s been proven that real, genuine
outreach through this platform yields higher returns on response rates
& ultimately links.
In some international markets, you’ll find that more people actually
check Facebook more often than their email (if they have one).

Because Google+ is on Google’s link graph, there’s a very high
chance that shares on this platform are seen as links just like they’re
from another website. And because Google+ pages, profiles &
communities have PageRank, these links are worth pursuing.
For a more detailed look as to why this is, see this post.

CREATE USEFUL THINGS

If you build it, they will come. There are numerous things you can
create that webmasters can embed on their site. In return, of course,
you’ll get links.
Some of these things will also naturally attract links to the page
you’re offering on them, so they work both ways.
Note: Web tools aren’t listed here because they aren’t something webmasters can physically put on their site.

They're easy to create, and if they catch on, you'll get a ton of design blogs linking to you.
You don't have to know design to create an icon set & get links
to it. Hire someone (on oDesk for example) to create a set for your
blog. Then give away the set for free in a new blog post for anyone who
wants it, and of course, notify design blogs about your free giveaway
(they love free giveaways!).
Note: make sure it’s niche specific to keep it relevant (i.e. for
sports, make the icon backgrounds as baseballs, soccer balls, footballs,
etc.)

Creating badges, such as the ones for the TopRank BIGLIST, work great if you're giving out awards. In the embed of the badge, include a link back to the awards page.
In terms of who you can give out awards to, it can really be anyone.
The easiest one to think of is the top X blogs in your niche, but this
has been a little over done by SEOs. You can also do top local
venues/restaurants/service providers/etc., which usually work better
because these organizations A) probably haven’t been featured in many
things (meaning they’ll be pumped & wanting to share with the world)
and B) probably haven’t been pitched before to embed a badge on their
site.
On the other hand, you can create a badge like this
for anyone, and not just an exclusive group. If you run a community
that has some size & klout, member badges could be a relatively
passive strategy.

If you're thinking about designing CMS themes (i.e. WordPress,
Drupal, etc.), know this: the links you get have little value, and that
to gain any real value, the anchor text needs to not be spammy (i.e. go
for branded) and the theme needs to be used by sites with relevant
content.
For example, if you're a sports blog, create a sports theme.
If you're OK with this, here's the best guide on the Web for utilizing WordPress Themes for links.
As for other CMSs, the concepts will be the same, but each will have
its own set of differences. If you want to create a Drupal theme, the
official Drupal theme depository includes only roughly 1,000 themes, meaning a lot less competition for downloads.

By creating embeddable widgets, webmasters can place them on
their site, and if you code it correctly, you can easily get a link
back.Widgetbait was once a very popular strategy, but in recent times Google has publicly said that they now need to be nofollowed, as these are generally “unnatural” by their standards.

CMS plugins & extensions, like those for WordPress & Joomla, can get you a few links.
For example, in the Sharebar plugin,
the default setting includes a link on the bottom of the floating bar.
It can be disabled, but some people don't bother, thus giving the
developers a link.
You can also get links from the official websites of the software
that your plugins & extensions work in (i.e. the WordPress plugin
directory).

Here's a great example of a toolbar that Webmasters can place on their site (with a link in the toolbar, of course).
Alternatively, you could create a browser toolbar, such as the SEO toolbar from SEObook.

PAID STRATEGIES

If you have a little room in your budget, then consider some of the
below paid strategies. Google is against paid links, but there are some
out there that are acceptable, such as the ones listed below.
Also keep in mind though that while Google might be against paid
links, in a lot of cases, it’s difficult to determine whether or not a
link was naturally or unnaturally placed.

If you've got a product or service you want reviewed on a
blog, you can pay for one. By using sites like sponsoredreviews.com,
ReviewMe.com, and PayperPost.com, you can pay for blogger reviews. Of
course, they'll link to you in the review.

It's a paid link that cannot be detected, it increases brand
awareness & trust, and best of all, it can be used to get natural
embeds.
For example, if I get one of the two bloggers in the industry to
embed a badge of "Featured in Top 10 X Blogs in 2012", and I outreach to
a few mid level bloggers that I also included (exactly for this
reason), they'd be more than happy to embed it, because if the big time
blogger did, they'd be honored to.
Honestly, if you're going to pay for a sitewide, this is the way to go. There are so many added bonuses.
Note: If you go for spammy anchor text, and not branded or partial, it could send spam signals, so don't play around there.

Blogging contests usually don't cost more than $50-100 to
sponsor. Make sure to look for ones that require participants to post
about the contest on their blog & link to each of the sponsors in
the post.

Most colleges have a wide range of clubs, and if you ask one
to sponsor it for a link in return, they'll probably say yes. You can
usually sponsor one for $50.
When searching for clubs to sponsor, think general niche instead of
specific. For example, if my target site is this blog, looking for
marketing clubs rather than SEO clubs will yield a much larger pool of
prospects.

It's a bit shady, but sponsoring WordPress themes is a way to
build links. They usually don't cost more than $25-50 per sponsorship.
If you're thinking about doing it, check out this guide to theme sponsorship.
Moving forward, I wouldn’t recommend this
tactic, but if you’re going to go this route, make sure your anchors are
branded & not exact.

Use sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to find projects that
need funding and are willing to give links on their websites to those
who contribute. So, for example, I might do a site: search on one of
those 2 (or any of the others out there) along with the text “link to
your website”. You’ll come across dozens of these opportunities that
usually cost no more than $10-20, so from here, narrow it down to ones
that are relevant & pull the trigger.
I have to give credit to Chris Gilchrist and this post for this one.

Ask webmasters if they'd give you a link on a relevant page in
exchange for $10-20 worth of StumbleUpon Paid Discovery traffic.
Sometimes they'd be willing to link regardless of the PD traffic, so
this just encourages them to link even more.
You can also incentivize other link building opportunities (i.e. guest blogging) with paid stumbles.

Relationship building can be hard. Find people in the industry
you can hire that can tap into their list of contacts for links,
because they've already built up those connections. This can extremely
helpful for those who are just starting to try to make a name for
themselves in a new industry.
You can also incentivize other link building opportunities (i.e. guest blogging) with paid stumbles.

Just like industry veterans, experienced link builders have
built up little black books of contacts (at least the good ones have).
Chances are they've dealt with people in either your vertical or a very
similar one. In that case, they can get in touch with those contacts,
saving you the time to initially build those relationships.

If you find highly linked to content on sites that are no
longer maintained, reach out to the webmaster and ask if you could pay
him $100-200 to 301 that page to a page on your site that has the
content. Chances are he'd be more than willing to if he doesn't care
anymore.

Reach out to universities and let them know about your
expertise. By writing curriculum for courses (the more basic, the easier
it is to get involved), you can get a few citation links from their
site.

If you have any job or internship opportunities, you can get a
few easy .edu links. For example, if you work in anthropology and
you're looking for an intern, here's an easy link.
For agencies, try and compile as many of these opportunities as you
can in a spreadsheet, and categorize each of them (i.e. travel,
hospitality, etc.).

By offering discounts to faculty, teachers, and students, you can easily get links from pages like this.
If you’re an ecommerce shop and your products are something that
students might be interested in, then these links are a no-brainer.
If you’re a local shop of any kind, then usually there’s a college or
two within 100 miles that have a discount program, and if so, then
these links would not only be fantastic from an authoritative
standpoint, but also a relevance standpoint. For example, if you’re
located in Chicago, you should get a listing here.

Scholarships can become the bread and butter of your .edu link
strategy if it's in the budget. Give out a decent sized scholarship,
such as $500-1000, and reach out to multiple colleges & high
schools. You don't have to settle for just a couple here; usually
there's not a limit on this one.
You could take it one step further and set it up as a contest; the
finalists have to write blog posts on your blog on why they deserve it,
and half the voting is done socially (i.e. tweets, +1s, FB likes). Heck,
I bet you could get even more creative at that point.
When prospecting for scholarship opportunities, make sure you follow
the paper trail rather than trying to find ones from scratch via Google.
Start off by finding a few pages (i.e. search “external scholarships
site:.edu”), and from there, plug all the scholarships listed into
Ahrefs, go to town on those, and then do the same with other
scholarships featured on those pages.

Most colleges dedicate a part of their site to their alumni, and some of them link out to their alumni's websites.
For example, one of my client's competitors had a link from one of the Harvard Business School's most authoritative pages, only because they got listed under "HBS Entrepreneurs".

This is very similar to your Alumni Directories but it’s more
valuable (albeit admittedly a bit more difficult to secure) based on the
fact that your link has contextual relevance rather than simply a
directory. Many colleges and universities love to share stories about
notable alumni with links back out to the associated websites (here’s an example).
Ask your clients for a list of the alma maters for their high profile
employees and pitch their stories to these universities.Pro tip: You should also see if there are any Awards (such as Drexel’s 40 under 40) that might provide additional opportunities for links.

Students are allowed to create blogs on their respective
college websites, so get in touch with them. They're a lot easier to get
links from then a regular college webmaster. Whether it's buying them
lunch or making sure you get a link from a college intern, you can
always get links through students.
For agencies, this can be scaled. Create incentive programs for students to recruit more student bloggers, and so on.

I’m not saying you should hire a recent grad for the sole
purpose of getting a link, but if you’ve hired any recently, check to
see if there’s any career sections of their school’s website that talk
about any job search success examples of their recent grads. If you do
find these opportunities with your grad, make sure they do the outreach
for the link. It usually just takes a quick call or email.
For example, the University of Oregon’s career center has a category of their blog dedicated to solely this.

COMMUNITY STRATEGIES

By interacting in communities, you can not only build links, but
also relationships (remember how I said how important they are at the
top?). This is a great way to get to know people in your industry while
snagging a few links at the same time.

There are a number of online newspapers that are run by the
people, for the people. By contributing, curating, and adding your
insight, you can get links from these sites on a regular basis (you get
the chance to promote yourself in your bio on most of them).
Here are a few for example:

It's definitely classified as low hanging fruit, but you can still get value from commenting on blogs.
To get the most value, comment on relevant blogs, dofollow blogs
(blogs that offer followed links to their commenters), and CommentLuv
blogs (blogs that have the CommentLuv plugin installed).
If you do it right, you'll build rapport with bloggers and links at the same time.
As a bonus, some blogs have a widget that displays the top
commentators in the sidebar of their blog. All you have to do is make it
up on that leaderboard and you'll get a sitewide link. Granted it might
take 10-15 comments, it's still worth it.
If you do this, make sure you don't drop all of the comments on the
same day; you'd look like an idiot. Do one or two a day for a couple
weeks until you get that link.

Forum posting is a great way to find the people in your
industry that are really passionate about your niche. Again, you'll get
links when you post in the right forums.
For ecommerce sites, this can not only be a solid, scalable link
building tactic, but you can drive enough revenue with it to justify
every second of your time investment. See this post & this follow-up for more details.

Using sites like Yahoo! Answers, you can build a few nofollow
links that should also send a bit of traffic. Make sure to cite pages on
your site when answering questions in order to guarantee a link.
Instead of going into Q&A blind, I suggest to first identify some
of the most frequently asked questions in your space, then create
detailed content around them, and setup web alerts for them (I recommend
Mention). Then
when someone asks, you can chime in with an answer you’ve already done
your research on, and you can link to your content for a more detailed
explanation.

LEVERAGE EXISTING OPPORTUNITIES

Chances are there are links out there that are already yours that
you just haven’t gotten yet. For example, if someone uses your content,
you should be able to get a link back. Here are a few existing
opportunities for you to snag a link or two.

If someone just bought something from you, then this is the
perfect time to ask for a link if they have any influence online. Ask
them to write a review of your product or service, and then offer to
help promote it to spread the word. It's a win-win!

By scraping your commentators and their URLs with this plugin
(only for WordPress though), you can find influencers that have
commented on your blog in the past. Just like with Twitter followers,
use this to build relationships with them to use for future link
opportunities.

If your content gets scraped, and the scraped piece of content
doesn't have a link back, then make sure you contact the webmaster and
get one. Just like images & infographics, it's copyright
infringement, so they're not going to say no if you get a response.

Tynt.com is
a site that allows you to get a link every time your content is copy
& pasted. It uses a bit of JavaScript to add a "More from: URL HERE"
when something is copy and pasted from that URL. So, for example, if a
blogger copies a paragraph from a recent post of yours and adds it to a
post of his own, a link will be added. Granted he can easily delete it,
it's still worth doing.
Here's a fantastic post on this concept.Pro tip: if you make the "More from"
text something like "Cited from", it'll look more scholarly &
professional. This usually gets a much higher success rate.

By using a reverse image search tool, you can easily find
other websites using your images or infographics. Politely outreach to
each and ask you could a link back for using them. If they don't, make
sure to let them know it's copyright infringement.Image Raider is currently the best tool out there for this at the moment. You can also use Google’s reverse image search or TinEye.

If your brand gets mentioned, then make sure you ask for a
link. For example, if someone mentioned "Point Blank SEO" on their blog,
I might ask if they could include a link so the reader would know where
Point Blank SEO is located on the Web.
Once again, I recommend using Mention to find these as they happen. I also recommend checking out this guide to using Link Prospector for finding previous mentions at scale.

If you're a part of an association or organization, chances
are they have a website. If they do, find out if they link out to their
members. Get included if they do.
Some might also do spotlights on their members
just like with Alumni associations (which were mentioned in the .edu
section). Reach out to try & get featured, and if you do, get the
link.

People will sometimes link to profile pages of yours on
external sites, so take advantage. This could be social profiles,
business profiles, member profiles, or really anything else. As long as
the page itself doesn’t have any real value add that you can’t replicate
(i.e. you wouldn’t want to do this for a ResellerRatings profile page),
such as your Twitter page or Crunchbase profile, then you can reclaim
these links.
For example, for your Twitter page that has links to it, do what I did here by going to the Twitter widget page and grabbing a full-page widget. Then ask webmasters to link to your Twitter page on your site rather than directly to Twitter.

If someone has linked to you in the past, chances are they
might be willing to in the future. Get to know them, and make sure
they're up to date with your content, because that only leads to more
links.
I like using Linkstant to instantly see who's linked to me. I always make sure to stop by and leave a thank you comment.
An action plan for this strategy is to make a
continuous list of bloggers/webmasters who’ve naturally linked to you in
the past. Make sure you touch base with them saying just how thankful
you are for the mention, and after that, if they’re OK with it, could
you notify them of any future content you put out? What you’re basically
doing is building up an email list strictly for potential linkers that
you can push big creatives to.

If you've built up influence, you can definitely use this to
build links. If I got an email from Aaron Wall asking to review his
toolset on my blog, I'd be more than willing to.
Outside of outreach, you can use your influence for a ton of things. For example, Ann Smarty used her influence to get a chance to write posts for Mashable (no lack of quality links there). Tim Ferriss landed an insane amount of features on news outlets and blogs when promoting his newest book because, well, he’s Tim Ferriss.
In general, you can use your influence to get a
much higher success rate with every other strategy I talk about, but
remember: if the person you're contacting doesn't know who you are, then
your influence is worthless (ex. a .gov webmaster could care less if
you're a big shot travel blogger).

Sometimes links to your website break over time, whether it's
because you've moved the intended page, or because the webmaster messed
up your URL. Go into Google Webmaster Tools to see which pages are
getting 404 errors, then redirect those pages to either the homepage or
the implied intended page.

Someone who follows you on Twitter is much more likely to link
to you than those who don't, so scrape your followers & the URLs
associated with their profiles, find their link metrics, and prioritize
your outreach efforts accordingly to get links from these people. For
more info, check out this post.
To download all of your Twitter followers and if information about each (including their URL), I recommend using Simply Measured.

Coining a new term in your industry can get people talking. It (semi) worked for me when I coined the term Scrape Rate, and it worked for Rand when he coined Linkerati.
After you make an attempt, immediately go &
setup web mention alerts for the term. The quicker you can reach out
while the content is still fresh, the better chance you’ll get them to
include a link if they already haven’t.

As defined
by Ross Hudgens, “short form text… is a small chunk of content that you
have created that is deemed worth enough to mention, that my be
plagiarized or referred to with or without a link.” This is similar to a
new term you coined, but instead, it’s usually phrase-length or a
sentence or two.
Some examples of short form text are:

A data point. i.e. “people who apply sunscreen to themselves generally apply 50-75% less than the recommended amount”

A quote/phrase. i.e. “A penguin cannot become a giraffe, so just be the best penguin you can be.”

With each of these, people won’t always quote them exactly, so
using Google search to type them in as quotes will not show you all the
opportunities present. Therefore, also search them without quotes, and
in the meta descriptions, look for near matches that dictate they’re
from the same source.
To make this an on-going strategy, set up web
alerts accordingly for these. For a more detailed look at this (and a
cool example), once again see this post by Ross Hudgens.

EVENTS

Whether you’re creating them or attending them, there are a variety of ways you can utilize events to build links.

Hosting local meetups or even paid events are excellent ways
to get links from a variety of websites dedicated to events in general,
as well as niche sites in your area that likely have a decent audience
that you're looking to tap into. This article by Kane Jamison
goes into more depth on footprints for finding event listing websites
and conducting outreach to people likely to talk about your event.

You don't necessarily need to host your own websites in order
to benefit from events. If you have space suitable for events you can
offer it to other organizations on a paid or free basis, which is an
easy way to earn links to a directions or "event info" page of your own
website. This is especially powerful for businesses like hotels,
retirement communities, restaurant/bars, and other similar potential
event spaces. Once your venue is established, you can go also back to
event listing sites that allow you to "Add A Venue" in their database.

If you're at an industry event, blog about everything that's
taking place. If you're the only one, you'll get loads of links. If
you're not, you'll still get A LOT of attention.
I know it's Wired, so it's a little unfair, but hopefully you can learn how it's done from this example (451 links from 140 root domains in 3 months).
Also, check out this fantastic guide on live blogging.

Along the same lines as Live Blogging, writing recaps of
events can help secure some additional links simply using the notes
you're already taking. There is always a surge of content that comes out
after a conference talking about ways to apply the strategies you
learned, so getting your notes out there gives people a resource to
reference as they’re writing this content. Make sure you promote these
recaps using the conference hashtag so that it gets in front of the
conference audience.
A great example of this is John Doherty’s recap of LinkLove last year (55 links from 8 root domains).

Sticking with events, providing the event audience with some
resource to help improve their experience is another quality way to
generate links. For example, Mack Fogelson put together a cheat sheet
for MozCon last year that acquired 18 links from 6 domains, but more
importantly I’m sure it helped with initiate or reinforce relationships
with other industry veterans/speakers.

Whether it’s a national day, week, month, or event, they can
all be used to build links. You could create your own, or you could help
promote an existing one. If this sounds like something you think you
could do, check out this entire post on the subject (props to Will O’Hara on taking this idea and really expanding on it).

Whether it's a local meet-up, industry conference, or anything
in between, event groups are always looking for sponsors, and you can
usually get a link in return for a $100-200 sponsorship.
Wil Reynolds brought up a good point in this post.
The moment an event is over, ask if you could sponsor next years. The
event committee will be so excited that they'd instantly say yes, and in
the end you get the link for close to two years instead of one.

You talked a good deal about sponsoring events, but you can
also secure links from sponsoring venues where these events take place.
I’ve seen this most successful for outdoor/sporting venues (such as my
local Georgia Soccer Park) but I’ve also seen it be successful for indoor/conference-type venues as well.

GIVE

You have something that people want, so give it away. Here’s a list of things you can give to get links.

There's no better way to connect with bloggers than by giving
them your product or service in exchange for a review. Usually there are
a lot of mid level bloggers in big industries more than willing to, so
this can be quite scalable.
P.S. if you have a link building related
product or service (please, no black hat software) reach out to me using
this tactic. I might just review it and give you a link :).

Giving out discounts & coupons is a great way to get mentions in lists like this one.
Make sure to reach out to writers who dedicate posts to discounts &
coupons so you can get included, usually they'd be more than happy to.

If you have a product or service, and if there's a relevant
blogging contest taking place, reach out to the blogger running it and
ask if you could give your product or service to the winner. They'd be
more than happy to, and they'll give you a link on the contest page if
you ask.

TRAFFIC DRIVERS

Not all links that we build are for search rankings. Some are for
traffic. We are getting high rankings so we get more traffic, right?
Besides, having all of your eggs (links) in one basket (Google) is never
a good idea. Here are a few examples of links for traffic.

Including links back to your site in newsletters is a great
way to get traffic, but take it one step further. Find influential
newsletters in your niche and try to get a link included.
For example, I've gotten a link in Eric Ward's Link Moses Private. An
even bigger target (that could potentially crash my site) is the Moz
Top 10 newsletter, which has 220,000 subscribers. Yeah. I know.Pro tip: Find out who's sending out the newsletters, and get to know them.

Scoop.it is an awesome way to drive traffic and to build a few
nofollow links at the same time. This site is a content curation site;
users get to curate what content they want to share. It's hard to
explain, so watch this video.
For us, we'll be suggesting content to users that get traffic to their pages. For example, look at this one.
It's received 21.6k views, so I know it will give me a bit of traffic
if I can get my content here. All I have to do is hit the "suggest"
button at the top, and wa-la, they can accept or deny my content.
Note: If your content sucks, this won't work for you. If it's great, this is a reward.

COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Creating a new project in your niche cannot only help build your
authority and trust, but it can also get you a few links if you know
where to put them. Here are a few examples of what you could create.

Whether it's a niche forum, Q&A site, or social network, you can probably create it without much trouble.
A few options are vBulletin or Simple Press for a forum, Buddy Press for a social network, or qHub for a Q&A site.
If you want to above and beyond, create a community from scratch. Inbound.org, created by Rand Fishkin and Dharmesh Shah, is exactly that.

Wikis are great, but only if you get people involved. Having a
little influence to begin with helps a ton. By outreaching to
influencers to contribute and by incentivizing contributions, you can
build it up as an authority. Again, make sure to link to yourself with
it.

Creating a human curated, quality niche directory is something
worth looking into if there isn't one in your industry. If the design
sucks (i.e. it looks like every other one) and the submissions you're
accepting are subpar, you'll have little success, but if you're
accepting only quality sites, it could get listed often on resource
lists.
I suggest starting with directory software, then customizing from
there. Just Google "directory software" if you're looking for one; most
don't cost more than $100.
Obviously, since this is a link building strategy, link to your main site.

LOCAL

Based on where you’re located, you can get a few links from local
websites. Here are a few ways to use your location to build links.

I don't always suggest an individual site, but when I do, it’s
the Better Business Bureau. This link will pass more trust than almost
any other link in your profile.
The price is determined by state/region/city and by number of
employees. The St. Louis BBB ranges from $370 for 1-3 employees all the
way to $865+ for 100-200 employees. Anything over that, as well as
additional websites, constitutes as additional charges.
That being said, you are SUPPOSED to get a “dofollow” link out of all
of this. You need to check on your listing once it is published as each
region has their own rules regarding their directory of businesses.
There have been some instances where your businesses website URL in the
directory listing was NOT a live link, only text. All you have to do is
contact your BBB representative and ask for that to be changed.

Most local libraries have a website, and most of them have
somewhat of a link profile. Nonetheless, get in touch, and do what you
can to get a link; it's going to be a link from one of the most white
hat sites in your profile.
For example, my local library has a Page Rank
of 5. At the time I'm writing this I haven't gotten a link from them,
but it's only a matter of time :).

Send press releases to your local newspapers. They like to
feature news from local businesses, and if your press release is
newsworthy, they’re usually happy to syndicate it (so have a link or two
in the original press release).

If you’re located in a shopping plaza or a mall, chances are
they have a website, and if they do, a fair amount of them list off each
of the businesses located in them along with a link to a website.
Here’s an example of a mall located near me.

LINKING OUT

Linking out is a great way to build links, because when bloggers see
they’ve been linked to by your blog (along with 50 visitors coming over
from that post), they’ll at the very least check out your content, if
not tweet & link to it.
Why? Because people are much more likely to help out others that have
helped out them. This is the exact same idea as helping out webmasters
in the strategies I listed above.
Actually, you can rank by linking out alone. Don’t take my word for it; take Tad’s from SEOptimise.

As opposed to giving trackbacks, find blogs that allow you to get trackback links.
For example, the Google blog gives out trackback links, and even though they’re nofollow, they’re still worth something.

Whether they're monthly, weekly, or even daily, doing roundups
of great posts in your niche is a fantastic way to put you on the map.
Mid-level, and even some high-level, bloggers take notice when they get
links from these.Pro tip: Make sure you add a little insight to why you listed
the post. It helps the bloggers being linked to know that someone is
actually taking the time to read their posts.

Reward people who link to you by giving trackback links. Take it one step further and make them dofollow. When they sort through there backlinks and see these, they'll be a lot more likely to link out to you in the future.

Medium level bloggers are the best audiences to target. When
they get linked to, they go bananas. I did when I got my first few
links; I actually told my friends about this particular mention I got because of how excited I was.
Linking out & letting them know you did so is a great strategy
for this large group. Usually the best natural link profiles come from
blogs that have control over this middle group.

Whenever possible, and I mean whenever possible!, mention
specific people. People LOVE getting mentioned. Link to their site (so
they know they got mentioned), and when they find out, they're usually
more than willing to share the post at the very least (if not link to
it!).
Again, this is a great way to put yourself on their map.

Try turning off your comments and asking other bloggers to
continue the conversation over a particular issue or topic on their
blog. Promise that you'll link to them at the end of the post if they
do. When they do this, they almost always link back to the original
post.
This works best with controversial posts.

MISCELLANEOUS

There are a lot of fantastic strategies that don’t quite fit in one
specific category, so here is a miscellaneous group you should check
out.

Setting up free blogs for others is fantastic, because doing
it might be complex for others, but easy for you. Make sure you get a
link from their blogroll in return.
I hate to bring it up again & again, but keep relevance in mind.
If your target site is about insurance, and you’re helping a friend
setup a blog about fashion, the link is going to look a bit weird to
both users & search engines. So in that case, it might not be worth
your time.

As opposed to contributing, having a Wikipedia page about you
or your company is something to look into if you've already built up
authority. If you're well known, this is a great option & a huge way
to build trust.
Make sure you're not the one writing it; have someone else write it, because it needs to be as unbiased as possible.

By finding assets that have worked in the past for
competitors, such as awards & infographics, you can steal their
success with little work. Basically, you're taking advantage of them not
keeping up with the times.
Overall, your best bet is to find either A) outdated assets or B)
incomplete assets (ones that have information gaps). So in general, if
you have no way of actually improving upon what they’ve created, then
it’s not worth making just another carbon copy.
It's a lot to explain, so here's a great guide to reverse link building.

By citing your own content on relevant Wikipedia pages, you
can get a link under the "References" tab. It's nofollow, but it's very
trustworthy & can send a lot of highly relevant traffic.
OveWhen doing this, make sure you don’t signup with a company email
address, otherwise people will disregard any edits you make with a link
to you as spam. Also, if the link doesn’t make sense (you’re just adding
it for the sake of getting a link), then it’s a waste of time &
will be taken out.

Job & intern postings outside of colleges can be a huge
win. When one major job site, such as Monster.com, picks up your
postings, it gets distributed to a ton of others. Most of the links
don't last long (until the vacancy is filled), but some do stick.

Whether it's meeting your customers, handing out business
cards, or even putting a sticker of your URL on your car, getting the
word out away from your computer can help increase brand awareness,
traffic, and in the end, links.

It's a strategy past its prime, but by starting an affiliate
program, you can not only get links through affiliate links, but you can
also get links to the affiliate program page itself (affiliate bloggers
will link out if they like it).
Make sure whatever software/vendor you use is
SEO friendly, meaning that the affiliate links are direct links to pages
on your site with referral strings at the end.

Yep, you heard right. I saw this comment, and I couldn't resist not dedicating an entire strategy to it.
Luckily, there's a point to be made. Get
creative! Creativity is the key to pioneering new link opportunities,
and usually ones your competitors can't get.

This is a little something I came up with myself. Some
blogspot blogs become expired and allow anyone to register it, so by
finding these blogs that have a few links pointing to it, you can gain
control, put up some content, and link back to your site.
For example, I picked up this PR3 blog
(Update April 2013: Google has taken it down) and added a link back to
Point Blank SEO. I did this awhile go, and I agree that it's a little
grey hat. I wouldn't do it again, but it's something I thought I should
at least mention.
The easiest way to find them is to do is to check for broken links on
pages that link out to a ton of blogs. This could be blogrolls, links
pages, or blog directories. If a link is broken, and if it's to a
blogspot blog, check to make sure you can register it. Most you can't.
If you can, then go to OSE and check out its link profile to see if it's
worth registering.

Yep, I included it. If you're going to exchange (reciprocate)
links with a website, don't do it as if you're living in 1998. Make sure
they're the most relevant, trustworthy websites you've ever come
across. If they're not, don't do it.

Building links to pages that link to you can be awesome if you do it right. You not only can pass more juice back to your site, but you can also use it for reputation management and to drive sales.Pro tip: Do second tier link building to trustworthy sites
linking to you, such as a guest post on a highly authoritative blog. For
example, if you're utilizing broken links, asking for the replacement
link to be to a highly trustworthy site over a link to you will get you
accepted a lot more often than if you asked for a link to you.
This is because the site is more trustworthy (webmaster more willing
to link) and because you're not asking for a link to the domain that
hosts your email (i.e. jcooper@pointblankseo[dot]com asking for a link
to pointblankseo.com), meaning it looks more natural in the eyes of the
webmaster.

Outside of looking for brand mentions for link reclamation,
there are numerous ways to utilize web mention monitoring for link
building purposes.
The first is for product mention monitoring. You can setup queries
for your products or your competitors products, and see where they’re
getting mentioned. For example, if they’re in forums, join the
conversation, answer some questions, and where appropriate, include a
link. You can also setup review based queries such as:

“product giveaway”

“submit a product for review”

“category: product review”

“If you have a product that would like”

The second is competitor queries. You can setup queries to find where
your competitors are getting mentioned, and in some cases, you can
contact the authors who wrote about them to let them know more about you
& if it’s possible if you get written about as well (see: drafting technique).
For a more in-depth article, see this fantastic guide written by Ross Hudgens on using Google Alerts (although I recommend using Mention.net instead which works the same way).

Finding and taking over abandoned domains is definitely a
strategy on the black hat side if you're doing something like a 301 or
using its expired content outside of the site.
One strategy is to find abandoned domains that have link equity, then
use archive.org to repopulate the content on some of the pages that got
the most links. Obviously, include a few links in the content back to
you.
I recommend using Domain Hunter Plus and Godaddy auctions for finding them in the first place.

Use some of the relationships you've built to create a network
of similar non-competing blogs. Link out to them, and ask for them to
do the same. A good number to have in your network is 5; it's not too
much, but it's not too little.
For example, make sure everyone links out to each different blog in the network once a month. Heck, make it once a week.
It's like reciprocal linking, but way better, because the links are relevant, contextual, and natural in Google's eyes.

Good ole' fashioned PR outreach is always a great idea if
you're buzzworthy. If you're not up for hiring a PR company for this,
make sure you research who you're pitching, and make sure to keep it
short and to the point.
If you do it right, you'll build up a relationship with the person
you're pitching long before you pitch them. This will also result in you
being able to tap into that relationship multiple times, and not for
just a one-off pitch.

If you’re a retail or eCommerce shop, look for manufacturer
& supplier websites of the products you carry and see if they list
off any of their retailer locations (usually a mix of offline &
online). If they do list online ones, then it’s an easy link. For
example, pages like this:

In a nutshell, you’ll be finding other ecommerce sites that
sell complimentary, but non-competing, products, and partnering with
them to get links from their category & product pages.
So for example, if you sell high powered flashlights, find retailers
who sell the specialized batteries for those flashlights. Getting links
on those category & product pages would be highly relevant &
would earn direct revenue. In exchange, you can do the same, offer them
payment, or you can give them some other form of value (i.e. including a
mention of them in your purchase confirmation emails to customers).
Although they both aren’t eCommerce, StubHub & ESPN did a similar partnership where on schedule pages on ESPN, links are included in each row of the table to StubHub to purchase tickets. Likewise, on StubHub, on each team ticket page, the standings of that team are displayed with a link to ESPN.

Try & get influential authors to write a guest post or two
for your blog. Not only will they share it with their audiences, but
the thing is, people love linking to stuff they’ve written in the past,
so having it hosted on your blog is a way to get those links.

Instead of creating them as a linking out strategy, find
bloggers who produce these, and get on their radar. These are the kinds
of people you want to build relationships with, because when you produce
something share worthy, you want to be able to send it to a person like
this who has the ability to link to it, no questions asked.

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